Germaine Greer challenges #MeToo campaign

By Nick Miller

Updated21 January 2018 — 8:41pmfirst published at 2:35pm

Australia's most famous feminist, Germaine Greer, has challenged the #MeToo movement and fobbed off calls to end Woody Allen's career over renewed allegations he sexually assaulted his adopted daughter.

Greer said women facing sexual harassment should take direct and immediate action against the men preying on them.

"In the old days, there were movies - the Carry On comedies, for example - which always had a man leering after women. And the women always outwitted him - he was a fool.

Greer was dismissive of calls to end Woody Allen's career over his daughter Dylan Farrow's claims he sexually assaulted her when she was aged seven.

Photo: CBS

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"We weren't afraid of him and we weren't afraid to slap him down.

"What makes it different is when the man has economic power, as Harvey Weinstein has. But if you spread your legs because he said 'be nice to me and I'll give you a job in a movie' then I'm afraid that's tantamount to consent, and it's too late now to start whingeing about that.

"I want women to react here and now. I want the woman on a train who feels a man's hand where it shouldn't be … to be able to say quite clearly, 'Stop.' "

But none of this excused men.

"It's the same old, same old. What is there about 'no' that you don't understand?"

On Saturday night, Greer was named Australian of the Year in Britain during a gala event at Australia House in London.

In a wide ranging interview before the event, the 78-year-old writer, scholar and activist was also dismissive of calls to end Allen's career over his daughter Dylan Farrow's claims he sexually assaulted her when she was aged seven in 1992.

"It was 20 years ago, so you want him to stop making movies now? It might be a good idea because he's probably no good any more," Greer said.

Her view on the #MeToo "business" is that she worries it's not going to work, that the women making allegations will be taken to pieces by the men's lawyers.

At the same time, Greer regretted that #MeToo had not gone far enough in its original aim - highlighting the abuses of minority blue collar workers at the hands of their bosses, and raising money to sue the abusers.

She said she was working on a new book titled On Rape, a sequel of sorts to her essay 10 years ago On Rage.

She said Melbourne University Press had asked her to update the earlier work but she declined because "it's of his time".

"So I'll do On Rape because I've been arguing about rape for a long time," she said.

"My feeling is we ditch rape altogether [as a crime] because it's hopeless. I have seen the police working up a rape case trying desperately hard to build it up so it will stand up in court - and wasting their time.

"The burden of proof is too high and that's because the tariff is too onerous. Rape is a daily crime, it's not spectacular. What we need is a coherent law of sexual assault."

Greer's award was presented by not-for-profit charity the Australia Day Foundation, which supports young Australians trying to make their mark in Britain.

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In 2012, Greer was confronted about her comments on the ABC's Q&A that then-prime minister Julia Gillard had a "fat arse". On a later episode of the same show Greer defended herself, saying: "Women are fat-arsed creatures."